One of my favorite writers, Mark Bittman from the NY Times had a couple of interesting Paris-related entries in his blog. One was on getting a bad meal in Paris and the other was on L%26#39;As du Fallafel.
Here is the link: http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/
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It is hard to have a bad meal in Paris if you stay in the central areas. A good meal may not please you however as we all have different expectations and backgrounds. I have had poor service, bad atmosphere but never bad food - not memorable many times.
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The only really bad (!! really really bad!!) food I%26#39;ve had in paris was at a place along the Seine a few blocks upriver from the Musee d%26#39;Orsay - and I should have known better, because the menu was mainly in English (which I came to realize was the sure sign of a tourist trap).
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We once dined in an actual %26#39;vacant lot%26#39; in Paris. That%26#39;s right...a %26#39;vacant lot%26#39; created by the demolition of the buidling that had previously stood on the spot, between three others. The kitchen operated out of leased space in the rear of one of the adjacent buildings. A decorative sreening fence and gate had been installed across the street-front, linen-covered, candle-lit bistro table set-ups lined the walls of the adjacent buildings and potted plants and trees with lights wrapping the branches were scattered about. So if there%26#39;s anywhere that one might suspect that they%26#39;d get a bad meal in Paris, this was probably it. We didn%26#39;t actually know that this location was a %26#39;vacant lot%26#39; until we were shown to a table and had a chance to look around. The food wasn%26#39;t especially %26#39;..memorable..%26#39; but it wasn%26#39;t bad either...remarkably good actually and the service was attentive. It may not have been our finest meal in Paris. The only really odd note about this place was that one of the kitchen staff evidently had to leave early and we were asked to move for a minute or two while the waiters moved our table set-up temporarily---so the guy could get at his motorscooter, parked in a niche in the back wall and push it through the %26#39;restaurant%26#39; to the street. We were %26#39;compensated%26#39; for the inconvenience with an extra pitcher of house wine and an extra dessert for my wife. In retrospect, I think I would have preferred seeing this guy ride the scooter around the potted plants and out between tables in a haze of 4-stoke smoke.
When we returned the following summer, the %26#39;restaurant%26#39; was gone and they put up a new building on the lot to house a new L%26#39;Occitane shop (or at least someone selling bath salts, soaps, moisturizers, candles--a lot of candles--etc) on the site. I was going to stop in to ask to see a menu...but my wife didn%26#39;t think the shop clerks would %26#39;..get it..%26#39; and it might be better if we just kept walking.
It may not have been one of our best meals in Paris...but it is certainly among our most memorable.
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So no-one%26#39;s eaten the sewage served at the Rivoli Self on Rue de Rivoli then? Must just be the coach parties I%26#39;m forced to take there by my employers then.
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My worst meal in Paris was at the Dome cafe (not to be confused with Le Dome on Blvd Montparnasse - great seafood restaurant) behind the Champs du Mars. Our feet were killing us and my partner wanted wine. I should have known better; the guy was standing on the sidewalk with menus beckoning us in. I ordered crepes. They were burned beyond recognition. The cheese was an oily mess oozing out of the crepes. Even now I shudder thinking how bad they were.
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I%26#39;ve had plenty of bad food in Paris. Admittedly, I%26#39;ve eaten at a number of places over the last 25 years simply because of the cheap price...and alas, one often gets what he pays for. I%26#39;ve eaten at just about every resto in the Huchette/Severin/Harpe area and have only found one worthy of a return. Most of them are pretty bad, IMHO. I can definitely see someone going to Paris and eating a number of meals in that area simply because of the charm, or around other touristy areas like Place du Tertre and coming home thinking the food really wasn%26#39;t all that great.
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I happened to check the thread just before I posted and ArrowCapet beat me to it. I had already typed:
%26lt;%26lt;Funny no one has mentioned rue Huchette in the beloved Latin Quarter. Some of the worst food, service and tacky atmosphere in Paris. The only place in France where we have ever been rushed through dinner in less than an hour to make room for the next victim.%26gt;%26gt;
To add to the bad food in Paris list, there are of course, the %26quot;traiteur chinois%26quot; joints that seem to attract tourists in big numbers. Bad and often tainted food, bathed in MSG, prepared in sweat shops in the 13th Arr.
Real sushi is tough to find in Paris and is usually crap. Same goes for Thai and Indian food. Mexican food restaurants are anything but. Pretty much any ethnic food in Paris has been dumbed-down to pablum.
Really great French food is everywhere though. I recommend that you get a few blocks away from the river to find it if you%26#39;re just out trolling for dinner. Your (pixfield%26#39;s) choices for ethnic food in NY are the best in the world so don%26#39;t waste a penny on that here. Go for the Côte de Boeuf!
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I really think visitors to Paris get what they ask for. If you spend some time and do some research before you go, you can have wonderful food in Paris. And it doesn%26#39;t need to cost an arm and a leg. And it doesn%26#39;t even need to be some %26quot;hidden jewel%26quot; (although those are wonderful when you find them). Hordes of tourists go to Paris and eat at the first place they find on the Champs Elysees or right next to Notre Dame and then come home with tales of the horrid food in Paris. (Rant done :)
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Remove rose coloured glasses. I love Paris, but, there are places in Paris that serve bad to mediorce food.
I have had bad chinese, bland and nasty, not from take out ,, but a resto near the Sorbonne.
I have had a very mediorce meal at Brasserie Lipp, shouldn%26#39;t have gone but did, and regretted wasting our money on food that was at very best mediorce.
Another time near Opera( sorry I don%26#39;t remember name, one of those places you sort of wander by at meal time and it looks nice, crowded etc
Had nasty greasy fried fish once, supposed to be a lovely sole sauteed with herbs etc. A plate with a greasy slice of over cooked fried fish arrived,, no flavor ,and a puddle of grease on plate. I am from an island, I know how to cook fish, and I could have gone in that kitchen and taught that guy a thing or two.
So, yes, you can get poor food in Paris, but, you not as likely to, I can only recount at the most 4 or 5 over the years that , I would count as %26quot;bad meals%26quot; , which I think is pretty good considering I eat out every meal in Paris( don%26#39;t do apts) .
One thing I have never had in Paris is , a bad cheese plate,, LOL, I don%26#39;t know why, but I have just never ever encountered that,, LOL.
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we rarely eat at very high end places but we have often had mediocre food in Paris and sometimes very bad food
we have almost always had great food in the countryside -- usually at little hotel restaurants in the %26#39;independents%26#39; group but I recall a wonderful meal in the restaurant of a hotel we were forced to stay in by total lack of anything else being open near Orador sur Glan -- the hotel was like a Motel 6 -- minimal in the extreme -- the restaurant looked like it was from the 50s right down to the chrome legged %26#39;dinette%26#39; tables -- and the food was wonderful -- I had lovely lamb chops and wonderful side dishes of grilled vegetables and pasta - my husband a truly fabulous confitte of ham with equally fabulous potatoes -- and it was cheap too
Last time we were in Paris we had an apartmentin Montmartre -- we did a little homework on restaurants but still had mostly bad luck -- wish I could recall the names to warn people off (one %26#39;highly recommended%26#39; place watered the wine -- obviously so) we had a very good meal at %26#39;L%26#39;Hommes Tranquille%26#39; on Rue des Martyrs near the Abbesses stop -- but there is a restaurant just up the hill from there that served a meal that can only be described as inedible -- e.g. an avacado that was too green to be eaten, just all around dreadful food
we do best when we find small out of the way places with limited menus posted outside --
our other bad Paris luck has been anything Chinese -- we once got take out for Christmas Eve -- looked great -- but it was just plain awful
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